Educational Games
Existing games surveyed within UPSKILLS
In the first task related to educational games, and following a survey targeting the game preferences of students of linguistics and language-related degrees, the UPSKILLS team surveyed existing digital games which can be integrated in existing curricula. Below you can find a list of such free to use, off-the-shelf games, indicating genre, characteristics and scope in relation to the desired graduate skills that were identified during our needs analysis. For a selection of these games, you can also access tailor-made guidelines with concrete suggestions about how they could be integrated in specific classes.
The UPSKILLS games list is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
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13:Origin - prologue
(Corvus Studio, Inc)
Single-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 3+ hours
This game is a typical escape room game where the player needs to solve puzzles to get out of a locked room in a mental institution. There is a storyline that evolves through the solution of the puzzles, which although not too easy are not impossible to solve. The game is meant to be a single-player game but it can also be played as a group/team activity, to elicit problem solving skills.
ArtBot
(University of Malta, Institute of Digital Games)
Single-player Free / Windows, Web
Gameplay: 20-30 minutes
A game that aims to teach concepts of reinforcement learning and more specifically supervised learning. The game shows how different parameterisation can affect an output’s accuracy when choosing between two different objects.
Assignment 42
(Mindfire)
Single-player / Free / Windows, MacOS
Gameplay: 2-3 hours
This is a game which focuses on the use of logic. It offers a basic programming environment, where robots need to be programmed to clear hazard and rescue people inside a building. Creativity in this game is promoted through the use of finding alternative ways of solving problems. This game’s narrative revolves around designing and creating solutions to problems within a building in order to rescue people and save lives.
Blackhaven
(Historiated)
Single-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 2-3 hours
This game is a first-person narrative game designed around a historic setting. The young character Kendra Turner explores a historic site she happens to be working at, to unravel clues and stories belonging to past era. The game presents an interesting and engaging narrative, together with graphics and visuals of artistic artefacts and paintings. The game is also interesting because it combines efforts from game developers as well as history scholars and elicits possible discussion points from the perspective of the development of history.
Dans Data Game
(Dutch national centre of expertise and repository for research data)
Multi-player / Free to play / Web
Gameplay: 30-60 minutes
This is an online version of a card game that is played in groups of 3-4. In this game, each player has a set of cards and he/she needs to build a quartet of cards with research-oriented goals. For example the player needs to gain a set of 4 cards related to ‘Why Share Data’. In order to complete a set of 4 cards, called a quartet the player, needs to guess who out of the other players has the card that he/she needs.
Data Agent
(University of Malta, Institute of Digital Games)
Single-player / Free / Windows, Mac, Web
Gameplay: 20-30 minutes
This game uses data generated from Wikipedia and DBpedia to generate an adventure. Players will follow the storyline to read up and solve the puzzles for the story to unfold.
Data Horror Escape Room
(Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, Leiden University and Eindhoven University of Technology)
Single-player / Free / Web
Gameplay: 2-3 hours
This game is a web-based version of an escape room with puzzles related to the handling of data in research which are needed to be solved in order to proceed in the game. It is a game which needs an online connection to be played, and which is played individually. Game play time can vary according to how fast puzzles are solved.
Developer Inc.
(Huntah)
Single-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 2-3 hours
Creating and Managing a Game Development Company. This game offers a simulation environment, for project management skills. It also helps players reflect about game design practices, and goes into depth for project management skills. The game’s narrative revolves around building and maintaining a successful game development company.
Faded Grey
(Derek Golliher)
Single-player / Free to play / Windows
Gameplay: 15-30 minutes
This game is a visual novel told in first person, as the player moves around a house, trying to unravel mysteries of his past childhood. This walking simulation features music and graphics which help increase immersion into the story. This is a short game that might have some horror elements though it’s not scary.
If on a Winter’s Night, Four Travellers
(Dead Idle Games)
Single-player / Free to play (with paid extra content) / Windows
Gameplay: 2-3 hours
This game is focused around a narrative, and uses the point-and-click type of adventure game. It contains an element of horror, whilst exploring the stories of 4 different characters as they travel on a train. The story unfolds in the 1920’s. The game also explores certain themes such as homophobia, racism, mental illness, etc so can be used to stimulate a degree of discussion amongst themes.
Lives in Transit
(University of Zurich)
Single-player / Free / Web
Gameplay: 30 – 120 minutes
This game is played over the web and is platform independent. It consists of 4 role-playing games, where the player needs to take on the role of a University post-graduate student grappling with research. Its series of questions-answers take the player across the narrative which gradually unfolds as the student answers correctly. Answers can take the form of emails, point and click answers, multiple choice, note taking, etc.
Loading Story
(Potatodog)
Single-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 20-30 minutes
A very short game revolving around the narrative of a young software developer who is trying to keep her job. It’s another point and click game, that is built mostly along dialogue.
Markus Ritter - The Lost Family
(Flimmersoft)
Single-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 1-2 hours
This is a game that’s a recollection of games from the 1990’s with full-motion video displaying the action in the game. This game is another puzzle game, which can be either played as it is meant to be (single player) or else use class groupings to help users engage more with the story content and solve puzzles together. This game can also elicit some further discussions and interactions amongst players as they traverse the game narrative.
Minecraft Learns ML
(University of Malta, Institute of Digital Games)
Single-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 20-30 minutes
A game that aims to show concepts of neural networks using imitation learning, as part of machine learning. In the game, players create a basic ML dataset and decide on the architecture of a neural network to solve navigation problems.
Research Data Management Adventure Game
(University of Bath and Stellenbosch University)
Single-player / Free to play / Web
Gameplay: 1-2 hours
This game is web-based storyline game, which uses the player’s given answers to proceed through the game. In this game, the player is assuming the role of a staff researcher working at a university. The game makes use of a narrative to take the player through a sequence of events which require him/her to make a decision or take an action depending on the task s/he is given.
Rising Spire: Prelude
(LFB Studios)
Single-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 2-3 hours
A fantasy game set around mystery and adventure, as a young character sets out on a journey across the world of Malus. This game is a prelude and an introduction to the actual game Rising Spire which is not free. However this game can also be used as a standalone game, that encourages exploration, character interactions and asset collection. This game will attract people who like role-playing games with a good narrative at the backend.
Roblox
(Softonics)
Single & Multi-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 3+ hours
This game is more popular with children due to its lego-like graphics. However it is a game that has been described by many adults playing it as relaxing. It is essentially a virtual world which contains a number of mini-games, which anyone who has downloaded the game can choose to play. There are games to choose from or all ages. It can contain interactivity, but players can choose to either play individually or else in groups/teams. With its impressive user audience, and millions of games to play, chances are that UPSKILLS target audience are familiar with this game platform and will thus be more accepting to its use.
Robot Daycare
(Kigyodev)
Single-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 1-2 hours
This game is built as a visual novel and it shows the perspective of 4 young people intent on raising a robot. This game may provoke a number of discussions around various themes in Ethics of AI and may be used to launch a face-to-face discussion in class. Game endings may vary drastically depending on the in-game decisions by the players.
Runescape
(Softonics)
Single & Multi-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 3+ hours
This game is more popular with children due to its lego-like graphics. However it is a game that has been described by many adults playing it as relaxing. It is essentially a virtual world which contains a number of mini-games, which anyone who has downloaded the game can choose to play. There are games to choose from or all ages. It can contain interactivity, but players can choose to either play individually or else in groups/teams. With its impressive user audience, and millions of games to play, chances are that UPSKILLS target audience are familiar with this game platform and will thus be more accepting to its use.
Storybook Brawl
(Good Luck Games LLC)
Single-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 2-3 hours
This game is targeted towards those people who show a preference to card games. It is a strategy game which is played through deck creation. The card game which features a number of creatures and treasures is an auto battler game, and each of the characters has a well defined role which makes game play slightly easier to grasp especially for beginners. Reviews indicate a game that is fun to play, with a good storyline and therefore quite appealing to the UPSKILLS target audience.
Super Meat Bot
(University of Malta, Institute of Digital Games)
Single-player / Free / Windows
Gameplay: 20-30 minutes
SupermeatBot is a game that also teaches about Reinforcement Learning in Machine Learning. In this game, players design the levels with rewards and deterrents which the AI will have to learn from to be able to traverse across the obstacles successfully. This is an easy, fun and engaging game.
Tales of Escape
(OnSkull Games)
Single & Multi-player / Free to download (with paid stories) / Windows, VR (Valve, Oculus, HTC Vive)
Gameplay: 1-2 hours
This game can be played either over VR or else from the PC. It is based on the classic escape room mode, where the users (both solo or multiplayer) have to solve a series of quests and puzzles to be able to escape from the room. This game offers users a number of language options, and it also offers an extension to the basic version by integrating a number of additional scenarios at a nominal fee.